Molokhia

Meet molokhia, the green that does not mind the heat. While lettuce and rocket retire in April, molokhia is just getting going, putting up a branching stem of serrated, pointed leaves and small yellow flowers.

Its character is vigorous and tidy. It wants sun, warm soil and regular water, and it rewards you with tender shoots every week you cut them. Pick them young: older leaves are tougher but cook down into a soup with its own natural thickener.

What it brings is a leaf that Arab and African kitchens have used for centuries, grown in the months when the usual salad greens are finished. A few plants in a raised bed give a steady supply of leaves through the hot months.

Molokhia (ملوخية) is the leaf behind mulukhiyah, a dish that Wikipedia says began in Egypt and became popular across the Middle East, North Africa and the Levant. It is the opposite of a winter crop. The UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment's calendar lists it as Jew's mallow, for field sowing in February to March, with harvest 50 to 60 days later. Arabic Wikipedia says the plant is grown all year and best in summer, and lists the Gulf countries among those that eat the dish. UAE shops mostly sell it frozen and chopped, such as Lulu's Al Islami 'ملوخية مفرومة ناعمة مجمدة' and the Sadia and Al Ain packs on Talabat.

A Korean trial by Han and Yoo (2009) sowed molokhia in spring, summer and autumn: spring-sown plants grew vigorously in the hot season, reaching up to 3.3 m by October, spring and summer sowings both gave marketable tender shoots, and autumn-sown growth was suppressed by low temperature. They describe it as a short-day plant, in which early flowering lowers leaf yield but is needed for seed. Purdue's NewCROP profile says plants reach 90 to 120 cm, that seeds germinate in 2 to 3 days in moist soil, and that in India seeds are sown from February or March to May. It also lists the plant among crops reported to tolerate salt, high pH and limestone soils.

Cooked, the leaves release a jelly-like thickener, and The Seed Collection says older leaves go into stews and soups while young leaves can be eaten fresh in salads. Tagalog Wikipedia compares the cooked leaves to okra for the same slipperiness. Treat molokhia like okra in the bed: full sun, a drip line, mulch and early-morning water through the summer. There is no FAO rating for it, so keep to clean water and sweet soil. Purdue's profile also lists hydrogen cyanide and cardiac glycosides in the plant, so keep pets from chewing it and eat only the leaves, cooked or young, as people traditionally do.